Thieving
Pickpockets NPCs and robs 16 fixed market stalls placed at real world coordinates, each with its own level, respawn timer and weighted loot table.
Thieving is a supply skill. You pickpocket people for coins and low-tier gear, and you rob market stalls for food, ore, runes, furs and gems you would otherwise have to gather or buy. Nothing else needs a Thieving level to use, so what you get is income and materials rather than access: a tool-free feed into Cooking, Crafting, Smithing and Magic. Five quests do want a level in it, and every pickpocket rolls for a clue scroll.
Level 1 to 120
Two things to do, and you alternate between them. A pickpocket pays three plus twice the target's own Thieving level, so a man gives 5 and a faraway man 183. Stalls pay a flat lump per steal, from 7 up to 2,350, but each one vanishes for its own timer afterwards. Follow the stalls: Draynor and Ardougne from 5, Rellekka from 15, Port Sarim from 35, then Ardougne again, Varrock, Brimhaven and Edgeville late.
- Men, women and gnomes 1 to 5
Sneak up behind any man or woman in Lumbridge, Varrock, Falador or Al-Kharid and pickpocket them for 5 XP and a handful of coins. Gnomes in the Tree Gnome Stronghold and around the Grand Tree work the same way, and none of these three can ever catch you.
- Draynor and Ardougne food stalls 5 to 15
The vegetable stall in Draynor pays 7 XP and comes back after three seconds, holding flax, wheat, pumpkin and cabbage; the bakery stall in Ardougne pays 8 on the same timer for dough and bread. Farmers open at 5 for 13 XP and highwaymen at 7 for 17.
- Leather, fruit and guards 15 to 35
Rellekka's leather stall opens at 15 for 20 XP on a five second timer and hands over cowhide and leather; the Draynor fruit stall opens at 20 for 18. From 19, guards in Varrock, Burthorpe and Yanille pay 41 XP each and drop iron gear and coins, with monks at the monastery on 27 and Brimhaven and Port Sarim pirates on 47.
- Port Sarim fish stall and druids 35 to 50
The fish stall in Port Sarim gives 55 XP every seven seconds and everything from shrimp to tuna. Druids in Taverley pay 73 XP and carry strength, stamina and speed potions plus air and mind runes; barbarians at the Barbarian Village and Outpost pay 83, Al-Kharid bandits 93, and Pollnivneach bandits about 112, the best pickpocket for the level.
- The Ardougne fur stall and silver 45 to 65
The fur stall in Ardougne opens at 45 and pays 550 XP a steal on a forty-five second timer, the best XP per steal in the skill until the gem stall, and it is the only way to get larupia, graahk and kyatt fur without setting a trap. Both silver stalls give 100 XP at 50, but Ardougne's returns in seven seconds against Port Sarim's ten, and Rellekka's fish stall matches that XP at 55 on an eight second timer.
- Rune and spice stalls, thugs and paladins 65 to 80
Rune stalls in Varrock and Brimhaven pay 150 XP every twelve seconds, the Varrock one stocking fire, earth, chaos and nature, the Brimhaven one water, fire, nature and law. Ardougne's spice stall pays 225 for garlic and knives, the second Rellekka fish stall opens at 75 for 220, thugs on the road between Falador and Rimmington give 133 a pickpocket and paladins in Falador and Ardougne 149.
- Scimitars, ores and gems 80 to 120
Varrock's scimitar stall pays 250 XP every fifteen seconds and Edgeville's ore stall opens at 90 for 420, with gold, mithril, coal and adamant. Smugglers just south of Edgeville pay 163 and faraway men in Burgh de Rott 183, while Ardougne's gem stall opens at 95 for 2,350 XP a steal, though it takes over four minutes to come back.
How stalls behave
A robbed stall disappears and comes back on its own timer, from three seconds for vegetables up to over four minutes for gems. It also shifts a couple of blocks from where it stood each time, so watch where it reappears rather than standing still.
Stall levels are hard requirements. You cannot steal from one a single level early, and the level is worth checking before you make the trip.
What the loot is for
Stalls are a supply line, not a payday. Vegetables and fruit feed Cooking and Crafting, silver and ore feed Smithing, the rune stalls keep a mage stocked, and the fur stall is the shortcut to hunter armour without ever setting a trap.
Clue scrolls come from pickpockets rather than stalls. Every successful pickpocket rolls for one, at a tier scaled to how tough the target was.
Quests that want it
Lumbridge Stripped Guard needs 10, The Haunted Library 15, Tribal Totem 21, Al Kharid Thief 25 and Fairytale II 40. All five pay Thieving XP back, so they are worth saving for the moment you qualify.
Worth knowing
- Pickpocketing needs you to be sneaking, out of combat, and holding neither a bow nor a magic weapon. Stalls only care about the weapon.
- A target goes on alert for forty seconds after you rob them. Keep clicking the same one and you get only a trickle of XP, and you can still be caught, so work along a line of people instead.
- Getting caught costs a small bite of health and leaves you blinded, confused and slowed for five seconds.
- From thirty levels above a target you start pulling double loot, and the Thieving cape raises your success chance across the board.
The full table
XP is shown wherever it is fixed.